Psalm 128 · a question people ask

Does Psalm 128 mean that everyone who fears the LORD will have a wife and children? What about someone who doesn't?

In the text

The psalm opens wide: "Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways" (128:1). Then it speaks to one person, you, and pictures one home: "You will eat the labor of your hands" (128:2), and "Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house, your children like olive shoots around your table" (128:3). It sums up, "Behold, this is how the man who fears the LORD is blessed" (128:4). The psalm doesn't speak of anyone who fears the LORD without a wife or children, and it doesn't say that such a person is outside the blessing of 128:1. Other Scripture speaks of those without sons and daughters. Isaiah 56 has, "Do not let the eunuch say" (Isaiah 56:3), and gives his words, "Behold, I am a dry tree" (Isaiah 56:3). Then the LORD speaks of "the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant" (Isaiah 56:4): "I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters" (Isaiah 56:5). The psalm before this one says, "Behold, children are a heritage of the LORD" (Psalm 127:3). These notes set the verses side by side, and don't make Psalm 128's picture a promise of any one home, or a measure of anyone's.

The verses

“A Song of Ascents. Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways. For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you. Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house, your children like olive shoots around your table. Behold, this is how the man who fears the LORD is blessed.”
Psalm 128:1-4 · World English Bible
“Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For the LORD says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.”
Isaiah 56:3-5 · World English Bible
“Behold, children are a heritage of the LORD. The fruit of the womb is his reward.”
Psalm 127:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 128

Psalm 128: Everyone who fears the LORD

In Psalm 128, Blessed (128:1) and You will be happy (128:2) are one Hebrew word, ashrei. Its olive shoots (128:3) is a word found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, and its "May the LORD bless you out of Zion" (128:5) opens with the same three Hebrew words as the last verse of the last song of ascents (Psalm 134:3).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions